John

That Ye Might Believe

Matthew starts with Abraham. Luke goes back to Adam. John goes back before creation itself: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (1:1). The first three words are the same as the first three words of Genesis. John is telling us that before there was a world, there was Jesus, and that the One who walked the dusty roads of Galilee is the One through whom “all things were made” (1:3).

John is different from the other three Gospels. Most of what he records is found nowhere else: the wedding at Cana, Nicodemus by night, the woman at the well, the raising of Lazarus, the long upper room discourse, and Thomas touching the wounds. John tells us exactly why he wrote: “But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name” (20:31). Every sign and every conversation in the book is chosen to bring a reader to faith.

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Authorship & Setting

The author never gives his name. He calls himself “the disciple whom Jesus loved” and says he leaned on Jesus’ breast at the Last Supper (13:23; 21:20). The closing verses identify him as the eyewitness behind the book: “This is the disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things” (21:24). The early church held that this was John, the son of Zebedee and brother of James, one of the inner three with Peter. Irenaeus, writing around AD 180, said John published his Gospel while living at Ephesus. Irenaeus had learned this as a young man from Polycarp, who had known John personally.

Tradition places the writing late in John’s life, around AD 85–95, making it the last of the four Gospels. Some scholars argue for an earlier date. Either way, John seems to assume his readers already know the basic story, so he supplies what the others left out, and goes deeper into who Jesus is.

The book is built around seven signs, from water turned to wine to Lazarus raised from the dead, and seven “I am” sayings: the bread of life, the light of the world, the door, the good shepherd, the resurrection and the life, the way, the truth, and the life, and the true vine. One note on the text: the account of the woman taken in adultery (7:53–8:11) is not found in the earliest manuscripts, and many Bibles mark it. Many believe it records a true event preserved by the church, and it fits everything else we know of Jesus.

Key Figures

• John the Baptist — the witness sent from God, who pointed away from himself: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (3:30).
• Nicodemus — a Pharisee and ruler who came to Jesus by night (3:1–2), later defended Him (7:50–51), and helped bury Him (19:39).
• The Samaritan woman — a woman with five husbands behind her who met Jesus at Jacob’s well and brought her whole town to see Him (4:1–42).
• The man born blind — healed on the sabbath, questioned by the Pharisees, thrown out of the synagogue, and found again by Jesus (9:1–38).
• Lazarus, Martha, and Mary — a family in Bethany whom Jesus loved. He wept at Lazarus’s tomb and called him out after four days (11:1–44).
• Peter — who denied Jesus three times beside a fire of coals, and was restored three times beside another one (18:18; 21:9–17).
• Mary Magdalene — the first person to see the risen Lord, who knew Him when He spoke her name (20:11–18).
• Thomas — who would not believe without seeing the wounds, then made the highest confession in the Gospels: “My Lord and my God” (20:28).

Greek Word Study

λόγος · logos

“Word.” To a Jewish reader, it called to mind the word of God that created the world (“And God said”) and spoke through the prophets. To a Greek reader, it meant the reason and order behind the universe. John takes both and says the Logos is a Person, and “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us” (1:14). God’s final Word to the world is His Son.

ἐγώ εἰμι · egō eimi

“I am.” When God revealed His name to Moses, the Greek Old Testament rendered it with these words (Exodus 3:14). Jesus uses them in the seven “I am” sayings, and also on their own: “Before Abraham was, I am” (8:58). His hearers understood exactly what He claimed and picked up stones. When soldiers came to arrest Him and He said, “I am he,” they went backward and fell to the ground (18:6).

πιστεύω · pisteuō

“To believe,” to trust, to commit to. John uses the verb nearly a hundred times, yet never once uses the noun “faith.” For John, believing is not something you have but something you do. It means coming to Jesus, receiving Him, and resting your whole weight on Him.

μένω · menō

“To abide,” to remain, to stay. “Abide in me, and I in you” (15:4). It is the word for a branch staying connected to the vine. John also uses it of the Spirit remaining on Jesus at His baptism (1:32–33). Abiding is how believing continues day after day.

Eight-Movement Narrative Outline

MOVEMENT ONE

The Word Made Flesh (1:1–51)

The prologue moves from eternity to Bethlehem: the Word who made all things came to His own, and His own received Him not. “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God” (1:12). John the Baptist sees Jesus coming and cries out, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (1:29). Andrew finds his brother Simon. Philip finds Nathanael, who doubts that anything good can come out of Nazareth. Philip’s answer is the best evangelism method ever devised: “Come and see” (1:46).

MOVEMENT TWO

New Wine, New Temple, New Birth (2:1–3:36)

At a wedding in Cana, Jesus turns six stone water pots into the best wine of the feast, “This beginning of miracles” (2:11). In Jerusalem He drives the money changers from the temple and says, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (2:19), speaking of His body. A respected teacher named Nicodemus comes by night and is told, “Ye must be born again” (3:7). Then comes the most famous verse in the Bible: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (3:16).

MOVEMENT THREE

Living Water and a Lame Man Walking (4:1–5:47)

Jesus sits tired at Jacob’s well and asks a Samaritan woman for a drink. He offers her water that will become “a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (4:14), tells her everything she ever did, and reveals that He is the Messiah. She leaves her water pot and brings the town, and they confess Him as “the Saviour of the world” (4:42). He heals a nobleman’s son from a distance. At the pool of Bethesda, He finds a man who has been lame for thirty-eight years: “Rise, take up thy bed, and walk” (5:8). It is the sabbath, and the leaders begin to seek His death, because He called God His own Father, “making himself equal with God” (5:18).

MOVEMENT FOUR

The Bread of Life (6:1–71)

Jesus feeds five thousand with five barley loaves and two fishes, then walks across the stormy sea to His disciples: “It is I; be not afraid”(6:20). The next day the crowd wants more bread, and He tells them, “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst” (6:35). His words about eating His flesh and drinking His blood are too hard for many, and they walk away. Jesus asks the twelve if they will go too. Peter answers, “Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life” (6:68).

MOVEMENT FIVE

The Light of the World (7:1–8:59)

At the Feast of Tabernacles, when by tradition water was poured out at the altar each day, Jesus stands and cries, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink” (7:37). The crowds are divided. A woman caught in adultery is dragged before Him, and He sends her accusers away one by one: “Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more” (8:11). Then, at the feast when great lamps were lit in the temple courts, He says, “I am the light of the world”(8:12). He tells the Jews who believed Him, “ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (8:32), and “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (8:36). When He says, “Before Abraham was, I am,” they take up stones to kill Him.

MOVEMENT SIX

The Good Shepherd and the Resurrection (9:1–12:50)

Jesus heals a man born blind, and the Pharisees cross-examine him until he answers, “one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see” (9:25). They throw him out, and Jesus finds him. Then Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep” (10:11). When Lazarus dies, Jesus waits two days, then comes to Bethany and tells Martha, “I am the resurrection, and the life” (11:25). At the tomb, “Jesus wept” (11:35). Then He cries, “Lazarus, come forth” (11:43), and a dead man walks out. The council decides that Jesus must die. Mary anoints His feet, He enters Jerusalem, and He says His hour has come: “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone”(12:24).

MOVEMENT SEVEN

The Upper Room (13:1–17:26)

Jesus takes a towel and washes His disciples’ feet, then gives them “A new commandment… That ye love one another” (13:34). Judas goes out, “and it was night” (13:30). To the eleven He says, “Let not your heart be troubled” (14:1). He is going to prepare a place for them, and He is “the way, the truth, and the life” (14:6). He promises the Comforter, the Spirit of truth. He is the true vine, and they are the branches. He warns them of tribulation, and then says, “be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (16:33). In chapter 17, He prays for Himself, for His disciples, and for all who will believe through their word, “That they all may be one” (17:21).

MOVEMENT EIGHT

It Is Finished; He Is Risen (18:1–21:25)

In the garden, the arresting soldiers fall back at His word. Peter warms himself at a fire and denies Him three times. Pilate asks, “What is truth?” (18:38), with the Truth standing in front of him, and then presents Him beaten and crowned with thorns: “Behold the man!” (19:5). From the cross, Jesus gives His mother into John’s care. Then He says, “It is finished” (19:30), bows His head, and gives up the ghost. On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene weeps at the empty tomb until a man she thinks is the gardener says her name, and she knows Him. Thomas sees the wounds and falls before Him. By the Sea of Galilee, Jesus cooks breakfast over a fire of coals and asks Peter three times, “lovest thou me?” Each time Peter answers, Jesus tells him, “Feed my sheep” (21:15–17).

Christ Typology

The Passover Lamb. John the Baptist names Him “the Lamb of God” at the start (1:29), and John’s Gospel times the crucifixion with the preparation of the Passover (19:14), when the lambs were being slain. A sponge of vinegar is lifted to Him on hyssop (19:29), the same plant Israel used to apply the lamb’s blood to their doorposts in Egypt (Exodus 12:22). And the soldiers do not break His legs, “that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken” (19:36), quoting the Passover law (Exodus 12:46).

The Tabernacle. When John writes that the Word “dwelt among us” (1:14), the Greek verb means “pitched His tent” or “tabernacled.” In the wilderness, God’s glory filled the tabernacle in the middle of Israel’s camp. John continues: “and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” The glory that once rested over a tent of skins now walked among men in a body of flesh.

The Bronze Serpent. “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up” (3:14). In Numbers 21, Israelites bitten by serpents looked at a bronze serpent on a pole and lived. The cure for the serpent’s bite took the shape of the serpent. Christ, who knew no sin, was made sin for us and lifted up on a cross, and everyone who looks to Him in faith lives.

The Manna. When the crowd reminds Jesus that their fathers ate manna in the wilderness, He answers that Moses did not give them the true bread from heaven: “Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead… I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever” (6:49–51). The manna kept Israel alive for a day. Christ gives life that never ends.

Jacob’s Ladder. Jesus tells Nathanael, “Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man” (1:51). In Genesis 28, Jacob dreamed of a ladder set on earth that reached to heaven, with angels going up and down on it. Jesus says He is that ladder: the one meeting place of heaven and earth, the way God comes down to us and the way we come to God.

Personal Application

Believe, and keep believing. John never uses the noun faith, only the verb. Believing is not a box you checked once. It is coming to Him, receiving Him, and abiding in Him every day. If your faith feels weak, John’s answer is not to try harder but to stay closer: “Abide in me, and I in you.”

Free indeed. “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” The freedom Jesus gives is not just freedom from a bad situation or a heavy burden. It is freedom from sin’s slavery, from condemnation, from having to earn God’s acceptance. Some of the people who heard Him say it were offended, because they didn’t think they were slaves. Freedom starts with being honest about the chains.

Your testimony doesn’t need to be complicated. The man born blind could not answer every theological question the Pharisees threw at him. But he knew one thing: he was blind, and now he could see. You do not have to win every argument to be a faithful witness. Tell what He did for you.

Love one another is a command, not a suggestion. Jesus did not say people would know His disciples by their doctrine, their buildings, or their programs, but “if ye have love one to another”(13:35). He showed what that love looks like with a towel and a basin. No task is beneath someone who follows a foot-washing King.

He restores failures. Peter denied Jesus three times beside a fire. Jesus built another fire and asked three times, “Lovest thou me?” He did not humiliate Peter. He recommissioned him. If you have failed Him, He is not done with you. He is still asking the same question, and still handing out the same assignment: feed My sheep.

TO GOD BE ALL THE GLORY · MARANATHA

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